Anthoine Vérard

Anthoine Vérard, Publisher and Bookseller

By Mary Beth Winn, University at Albany, S.U.N.Y.

Anthoine Vérard dominated French book production in Paris from 1485 to 1512, a critical period in the shift from manuscript to print. Although he defined himself invariably as a “humble bookseller,” this modest epithet belies the gargantuan scale of his enterprise, for during his career he issued more than 300 editions. Even more remarkable than their sheer number, however, is their visual splendor, for Vérard was the “father of the French illustrated book.” His hallmark was the deluxe in-folio volume, printed on vellum, with woodcuts overpainted by the best artists of the time. Vellum copies exist for most of his editions[1], but even among these deluxe copies, gradations in quality are evident. To his royal and princely patrons, Vérard presented truly personalized volumes, with miniatures expertly painted by the finest artists and armorial bearings added to the borders. In anticipation of other sales, however, Vérard also prepared more commercial versions, deluxe in appearance but mass-produced, in which woodcuts were coarsely and quickly overpainted with abundant color but mediocre skill. If the latter were destined for a “clientèle fascinée par l’apparat (jusqu’au mauvais goût),”[2] the finest examples were justifiably counted among the treasures of the royal library. All of them alert us to an essential characteristic of early printed books: the uniqueness of each copy.

These “hybrid” volumes, in which the arts of manuscript and print were skillfully combined, reflect the coexistence of both forms of “publishing” at the end of the fifteenth century. They also reflect Vérard’s uncanny ability to exploit both arts in order to capitalize on the two coexistent systems of exchange: commerce and patronage. Vérard used the new technique of printing to create, in relatively short order, multiple copies which he could then individualize by traditional manuscript methods. As a result, he could offer deluxe manuscript-like books to patrons while at the same time sell the ordinary copies to customers at his shops. He could, more importantly, assume the role of “author” of the book, creator of the material object achieved through what he termed as an “art d’invencion.” Vérard proclaims his new role visually, by depicting himself as the kneeling donor in presentation miniatures, or verbally, by inserting a dedicatory prologue. “Humble bookseller” perhaps, he nevertheless counted kings and princes among his patrons: Charles VIII, Louis XII, and the future François I of France, Henry VII of England, the French queen Anne de Bretagne.

Although little is known of his origins, Vérard may perhaps have come from Tours to Paris where on September 12, 1485 he launched his career with the publication of a small book of Hours for the use of Rome. Already sensing perhaps that these devotional books would become the best-seller of the new printing industry, Vérard’s was the first illustrated edition of Hours, the earliest printed in France,[3] the first printed with French text as well as Latin. Illustrated Books of Hours, issued throughout his career, constitute a quarter of his entire production, accounting for more than eighty editions. Among the most famous are the Grandes Heures with wide historiated borders bearing texts in French verse. Charles VIII ordered several editions of these Hours, to which his official reader, Guillaume Tardif, contributed various prayers. Vérard and his contemporaries Du Pré, Pigouchet, Vostre, Kerver, and others, made Paris the international center of Horae production.

As the colophon indicated, Vérard in 1485 already operated from two shops, which attests to his rapid ascendancy in the book trade. Both locations, one on the Notre Dame bridge, the other at the Palais in front of the Sainte-Chapelle, were identified by the sign of saint John the Evangelist, patron saint of scribes and by extension of the book industry in general. By 1486 Vérard had adopted his printer’s device. Rectangular in shape, it contains the monogram “AVR” set within a heart supported by two falcons; above this, the French royal arms are supported by angels and surmounted by a crown. The design is framed by a distinctive border of text which includes the publisher’s name within a prayer in verse:

Pour provocquier, Jhesus, ta grant misericorde

De tous pecheurs faire grace et pardon,

Anthoine Verard humblement recorde

Ce qu’il a il tïent de toi par don.

Aside from the Books of Hours, almost all of Vérard’s publications were in French. His choice of texts reflects the taste of the court and of the wealthy class which aspired to it: works of fiction, chronicles and historical texts, translations of classical authors, and devotional treatises, with a few popular “scientific” or political tracts. Many of these works, such as the Legende doree or Lancelot had already been successfully printed in Lyons, Bruges, or Paris, and Vérard was thus assured both of their popularity and their commercial value. He cannot be dismissed, however, as an imitator in his choice of texts, for many contemporary works received their first edition at his hands. Court poets and translators such as Octovien de Saint-Gelais and Guillaume Tardif were first edited by Vérard, although his relationship with contemporary authors was not always free from conflict. Similarly, Vérard’s anthologies remain invaluable as collections of fifteenth-century texts, despite the anonymity dealt the authors and the liberties taken with their texts.

Vérard’s last editions date from ca. 1512, and although his widow Germaine Guyart and son Barthélemy Vérard took over the business, they never achieved his success. The protean functions of the 15th-century “libraire” are not adequately translated by the single term “bookseller”. Anthoine Vérard was a master in this multi-faceted role. He supervised the entire production of a book, selecting works to be printed and having them translated when necessary. He negotiated with authors, and occasionally without their approval, in this age before copyright, combined texts for a single volume; he edited the texts or hired writers to do so; to some of his books he even added prologues of his own. He provided illustrations, sometimes ordering new woodcuts made, sometimes borrowing them, at other times specifying which woodcuts might be re-used from his stock. For special copies, he hired artists to paint miniatures over the woodcuts. Vérard employed a host of authors, artists, editors, scribes, and printers, as well as merchants and clerks. He commissioned publications and financed them, publicized and sold them, personalized deluxe copies and delivered them. His position at the hub of a vast commercial network at a time of tremendous upheaval, expansion, and transition into a new print culture, establishes him as the first great “marchand libraire.”